The Scent of Death

Rats, they say, can sense within one another undesirable genetic anomalies. In 2007, researchers at the University of Texas examined mate selection in various rat populations, and while the males weren’t all that picky, females, they discovered, routinely rejected male rats whose ancestors had been exposed to vinclozolin, a common fungicide linked to kidney disease and cancer. Scientists attribute this unique ability to the rat’s highly developed sense of smell, as though vinclozolin itself reeks of fermented bloodlines. Would that we could do the same. Unfortunately, all that’s left of our pheremonic lovemaking is the tang beneath our arms, and even that we try to mask. It’s remarkable, though, how often you come across the word “scent” in erotic fiction, and even more so in outright porn. That the smell of sweat, at the right moment, can shove us into heat betrays the existence, at the core of all we call civilized, of an irrational creature.